Can you make onigiri without seaweed

Whether you use plain or sushi rice, start with short or medium grain Japanese japonica rice and rinse it well before cooking. You can buy an inexpensive, easy-to-use onigiri mold. They come in fun shapes from basic triangles to flowers or assorted animals. Use short- or medium-grain Japanese-style japonica rice, the type that is used to make rice for sushi. This rice has the right amount of starch to hold together in a ball.

Cook the rice and let it cool until it is cool enough to handle. Shape and fill the rice balls. Let them cool to room temperature before wrapping in seaweed this will keep the seaweed from immediately getting soggy. Wet your hands with water to keep the rice from sticking to your hands. This will make it easier to make attractive rice balls.

Keep a bowl of water on your countertop and dip your hands in as necessary to keep the rice from sticking. If you plan to take it to go, wrap the seaweed separately or use individually-wrapped nori sheets. This will keep the seaweed fresh and crisp until you are ready to eat your onigiri. Fill your onigiri with just about anything you like.

The list of possible onigiri fillings is endless. Here are some suggested onigiri fillings, but let your imagination run wild. Onigiri can be refrigerated or even frozen! They come individually wrapped in plastic so that they stay fresh and crunchy. I am a full-time food blogger, recipe developer, and cookbook author. I spend my days cooking, writing about, and photographing food. My food writing has also been featured in major print and online pubications including Cooking Light , Fitness , San Jose Mercury News , San Francisco Chronicle , and other popular publications.

More posts by this author. I like this recipe. But if I put the nori on it get soggy: so i am looking for this kind of wrapped nori that is showing in your picture. Where can I buy it in USA? Alternately, you can leave the nori off and slip it in a ziplock bag or you can buy the to taste nori sheets in pack of ten and take a pack with you.

If you have bento, I find that if you cut the nori in sheets in quarters and slip them in a baggie they fit neatly under the onigiri and do not get wet. Then just unwrap the sheets and grab your onigiri when hungry!

My husband prefers the dry nori sheet, and I do not mind the sheets not being crispy. Triangular but slightly rounded and the perfect size to place in bentos. The pink and beige single Larger Triangular Mold is made from silicon, around the size of the ones you find at convenient stores. The Green Mold with the handle makes three small cylinder rice balls. And the round green mold makes onigiri shaped in cupcakes!

There are also Nori rollers that pokes holes in the seaweed to make them easier for wrapping. Step 1 : Cook your rice. I used 3 rice cooker cups of short grain rice and added water until the 3 mark line. I highly recommend using a Japanese Rice Cooker to making quality short grain rice.

Set up your work station. TIP : keep a damp cloth over your cooked rice to keep it fresh. Step 2: Set up your work station and have a bowl of water and salt on hand.

For the Umeboshi filled rice ball, wet your hands and dab your two fingers into the salt. Step 4: Place the lid on top and gently press down. Shake the Onigiri out of the mold and place on a tray with a damp cloth over it. If using furikake, before wetting your hands scoop some rice out and mix in some furikake. You can totally skip this step and just eat the rice ball as is I usually do this for the furikake rice balls but the roasted seaweed does add a nice crunch.

There are a couple of ways to wrap rice balls with seaweed. The most iconic looking one is the one with a strip of seaweed going front to back.

Simiarily, you can use a thicker piece of seaweed and wrap it front to back and cover the entire rice ball. Then we have one that is wrapped kind of like how you would wrap yourself in a blanket. Another is a strip of seaweed going around the outside of the rice ball. These rice balls are one of those things that just taste better freshly made BUT I do have a couple tips to keeping Onigiri fresh.

So when going to university, my mom taught me this neat trick of wrapping the onigiri in plastic wrap or storing them in stacher bags and then wrapping them in kitchen towels to prevent them from getting TOO cold. Freezer : Place the individually wrapped rice balls on a tray and freeze.

Then you can transfer them into a larger bag. To re-heat , just take as many as you want out of the freezer and nuke them in a microwave safe container for minutes or until nice and warm again. Have you ever seen those bentos packed with cute little rice balls? Ever wondered how they make them? Well you can- and very easily. Just an example of cute Onigiri balls photo above , it took me less than 1 minute to make. I just used this Onigiri shaker maker to form small balls and then used Smiley Face Nori Seaweed Cutters and stuck those in with some tweezers.

There are so many ways to prepare and enjoy this simple Japanese dish. I really hope this Ultimate Onigiri Guide has left you inspired to making homemade Onigiri! They really are the perfect portable meal or snack that you can fill or flavour with your favourite ingredients! Hungry for more? Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Instagram , Youtube and Pinterest for more deliciousness! Wrapping Onigiri with Roasted Seaweed. Nutritional Information Disclaimer: Nutrition information is a rough estimate calculated on an online tool Cronometer , based on 1 out of 12 regular salted Onigiri Ball.

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Thank you for supporting my plant based kitchen! I looked at several blogs on onigiri. I got links to the ingredients and mold on one but yours was the most comprehensive. I used your instructions for making onigiri for the first time.

I plan to freeze some for a quick healthy lunch. I made some with seasoning mixed in, some with it inside. I made several with tuna and mayo more layered than stuffed. Then I made a couple with the it rolled in seasoning on the outside edge. Our favorite was with the seasoning mixed in because we got flavor in every bite.

It was so easy. Everyone should make it! Thank you! Hi Kimberly! This really made my day! This made my experience in the kitchen really stress free!

My onigiri came out wonderfully because of you! I had never made Onigiri before and had no experience cooking Japanese food, but your instructions were super clear!

It was very easy and turned out great. Thank you for this thorough guide! Any other tips? I always wanted to get started on Onigiri but was intimidated for some reason. Personally I don't use molds much since I can make them by hand a lot faster, but they can be fun if you have the time, or are making them for a party or something like that.

I actually used egg molds to make the ones in the photo. Faces can be made with cut nori or anything you can imagine. It should all be edible though! You can also play around with the size of the onigiri.

Here's a 'jumbo onigiri' side by side with a regular sized onigiri. It's a two-fisted onigiri! Depending on how big you make them they could be even more.

If you are doing portion control, it's best to pre-measure the amount of rice as in this method. Onigiri can be frozen, well wrapped and filled except for tempura and chicken karaage type fried fillings, which can get soggy or tough if you microwave them later. I would not make onigiri with frozen rice however - it's best to form the onigiri an then freeze it.

You can then de-frost them, still wrapped, at room temperature, in the fridge or gently defrosted in the microwave. See also: Keeping onigiri fresh and more. Combined with the previous onigiri articles linked to here, I hope that this answers most, if not all, of the onigiri questions you may have.

Except for the famous Hawaiian Spam Musubi. I still haven't tried it. Anyone want to invite me to Hawaii? I found them edible but do not love them.

Sorry, spam musubi fans! Thanks to Team Sugar! Before asking a general question about onigiri, please check out the Onigiri FAQ page. Chances are your answer is already there! If you enjoyed this article, please consider supporting this site by becoming my patron via Patreon.

Become a Patron! But first to dispell some onigiri myths Onigiri do not have to be triangular in shape. Onigiri do not have to be covered with nori seaweed. Onigiri do not have to have a filling. If the rice is sushi rice flavored with sushi vinegar , it is no longer onigiri, it's sushi. The one rule of onigiri is The keys to great tasting onigiri are Good rice, properly washed and cooked. There is a big difference between mediocre rice and good rice Sufficient salt to flavor the onigiri - either on the outside if making the usual type of onigiri, or with a salty filling inside, or salty enough sprinkles.

Traditional onigiri shapes As stated above, an onigiri does not have to be triangular. Type 1: The plain, unadorned, unfilled onigiri This is a plain ball of rice, lightly salted on the outside. Type 2: The filled, nori covered onigiri This is the most popular kind of onigiri, with a small amount of salty filling in the inside covered with plain rice, which is covered partly or fully with nori.

Type 3: The sprinkled onigiri This is a filled or unfilled onigiri that is sprinkled on the outside with something. Type 4: The mixed-rice onigiri For this type of onigiri, the rice is first mixed with something, then formed into a ball. Type 5: The visible-inside onigiri This type of onigiri shows off the inside and is only wrapped around the sides, rather than all around the ball.